The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration?s decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.
Read moreOn Thursday, President Bush claimed that “nearly 100,000 fully trained and equipped Iraqi soldiers, police officers, and other security personnel are working today.” But last Monday, the Pentagon said that “only about 53,000 of the 100,000 Iraqis on duty have now undergone training.”
Read moreReports, including one in The Nation Magazine by Kathy Pollitt, point an incident at the University of Arizona in Tuscon where Fox News reporters attempted to intimidate and threaten students conducting a voter registration drive on the UA Mall.
Read moreLast week Congress began to take up the 9/11 Commission?s recommendations but now we have the details of the proposed legislation and it is much worse than we had expected. The proposed House bill would likely create what amounts to a national identification card, drastically curtail basic fairness in the nation?s immigration system and expand government powers under the PATRIOT Act.
Read moreAn Article by Frederic Morton: If this rainbow array of hopes is indeed dying now, it is not the terrorists but the recent cumulative acts of the United States itself that are the slayers. To Europeans of nearly every stripe, the statue in New York harbor brandishes not a torch but a tommy gun. Lady Liberty has transmogrified into an ominous colossus. Here is the ultimate Godfather, enforcing with missile and aircraft carrier a protection racket on all seven seas. Here is an America shrugging armored shoulders at the ozone hole, at collateral damage, at its own poor, an America practicing domination in the name of freedom.
Read moreI still can’t believe we didn’t lose power during yesterday’s visit by Jeanne. It flickered a half dozen times, but always came right back.
Read moreI just wanted to get out a quick update. Its about 6pm, and it appears we have survived nearly unscathed. There is still some blustery wind, and its still raining, but I believe the worst is over. Jeanne has been a tropical storm for several hours now, and is moving to the north at about 10mph.
Read moreThe wind continues to pick up. The eye is about 60 miles away, and looks as if it is finally turning somewhat northward. But we are still going to have some increasing sustained winds.
Read moreWe’ve watched as Jeanne has tracked much more west than north, and so we are now going to a full-on hit from the hurricane. Their was just a report that we have sustained winds here in Tampa of 51 mph. Jeanne is now down to 85 mph in the eye-wall, which is probably about three hours from being right here in Tampa. It is raining, but not yet pouring. That is anticipated however. The storm is moving fast, so hopefully it will get through here quickly.
Read moreOn top of a small sink hole out near the street, now here comes Jeanne. With a westward shifting track, we’ll most likely get at best tropical storm force winds, and I’m sure be out of power for some period of time. This is getting old.
Read moreDuct tape is like The Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
Read more